


up in the air

by Anonymous



Category: Final Fantasy X & Final Fantasy X-2
Genre: F/F, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-11-24 08:55:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20904989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Rikku and Yuna find each other, and something like home.





	up in the air

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Welsper](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welsper/gifts).

It's a gorgeous day, and Yuna's delighted to wake up to the sun over clouds, the Celsius's deck opening up to the thin air of the sky. "Wow," she breathes out, still a little stunned, and she stretches her arms out, relishing in the relief from the ache in her shoulders. It's probably from sleeping awkwardly. She's still unused to the beds.

"Yunie!" Rikku calls out, her voice nearly lost from the rush of air over the airship's engines. "Oh, there you are. What'cha doing?"

"Just… thinking," Yuna says, and glances over. Rikku's dressed terribly for standing out here, and Yuna wants to wrap her up in blankets or take her somewhere Bikanel-warm, maybe with a glittering ocean instead of miles of impassable sand. "You know."

"Eh," Rikku says, drawing out the word, and comes to stand next to Yuna, her long scarf flapping in the wind. "You think too much, Yunie. You're here for a vacation, right?"

"I'm here because you invited me," Yuna says, but she finds herself smiling as Rikku grins at her. "Okay, maybe its a little for the vacation. You really talked up this whole sphere-hunting business, I wanted to see what it was about."

"That's right," Rikku says, bouncing on the balls of her feet, "sphere hunting! Better watch out, the High Summoner's coming to steal them all - "

"Rikku!" Yuna laughs. "We're not _stealing_ them, are we?"

"Stealing," Rikku says, waving a hand dismissively, "acquiring, who's really counting? Or we can stick with 'excavating'. Anyway, Buddy thinks he's found one over past Luca - you ready?"

Yuna looks out at the wispy cloud over Spira, then at Rikku, waggling her fingers as she holds out her hand. Yuna takes it, interlacing their fingers, and lets Rikku pull her up. "Yeah, I'm ready," she says. "Let's go!"

Yuna isn't, technically, part of the Gullwings yet. That doesn't mean she doesn't get to take advantage of all of their fancy new technology, and she's clipped on the garment grid and weighs the sphere Rikku handed her as she adjusts her own. "What's recorded on these?" she asks, as they walk out from Luca's stadium to the Mihen Highroad, following the dispersing crowds. "Does it have to be something specific?"

"Yep," Rikku says, snatching it off her, "but don't watch that! It's not done yet!"

Yuna finds herself smiling as she tips her head, plastering on innocent confusion. "So what is it?" she says, just to see the way pink starts to crawl up Rikku's face. "Something important?"

"Ugh," Rikku says, "you were going to figure it out, anyway. I'll show you. Just wait."

Yuna's curiosity itches at her, but she lets Rikku draw her into a conversation about sphere-readings instead. They're halfway down the road when Rikku spots a glint of lost gil off the road and leaves her side, then finds herself immediately set upon by fiends. "I've got it," Rikku calls back to her, dancing away from the Purpurea's seed burst with natural agility, eyes narrowed as she examines it, "Oh, hey, gimme a sec - "

"Rikku!" Yuna protests, tugging her out of the way of a strike as she focuses. Rikku's dropping into the odd duality of thought that lets her reach through pyreflies to steal items from the heart of fiends, one that Yuna's struggled to capture before Shinra passed her a dressphere full of recordings of Rikku doing precisely that. Rikku flashes her a smile as Yuna provides cover fire, and darts forward in the moment the Purpurea recoils from her strike.

It should be simple to fight after everything they've done. But Yuna still sometimes finds herself reaching for her staff, for the aeons who no longer answer her call, a lifetime of habits difficult to break. The guns she's improving with, slowly, long days of practice with targets and Rikku's hands on her arms and shoulders, fixing her stance; they're new, like Yuna feels, scrubbed bare down to the machina underneath. Yuna hefts her guns, aims and fires, and one of the wolves dissipates into pyreflies. 

The second rushes toward her as Rikku darts in, snatching a treasure from the Purpurea. Yuna catches a claw down her arm, her footwork not agile enough; Rikku hears her involuntary cry and she swivels on her feet, her daggers digging into the Wolf's fur and sinking through muscle to bone.

"Watch it, Yunie!" Rikku says, voice breathless as she dodges its retaliatory swipe. 

Yuna braces her next shot and fires, and then there's only the Purpurea left, fronds swaying as it seeks their new positions. "I'm fine," Yuna says, checking, "nothing a potion won't cure."

The Purpurea is only a strike away from death and Yuna takes it, shooting from the shoulder, her posture perfect. "Got it!" Rikku cheers, swiping up gil from the grass, her keen eyes picking out every coin, and then she holds out a recording sphere, bouncing on her feet. "C'mon, a pose for the road?"

"At least let me wrap this," Yuna says. The cut on her arm is shallow but bleeding, and she digs into her pockets for a moment before a potion vial comes soaring at her face.

"There," Rikku says, right as Yuna catches it, "and you said you were fine! Are you? It's not poisoned, right? I did just pick up a Remedy…" She steps closer, eyebrows drawing together, and reaches for Yuna's arm.

Yuna uncaps the potion and pours it on the wound, shivering as the magic works it's way into her skin. Rikku's touch to her elbow is flutteringly light, and they both watch as the wound seals shut. "Yes, I'm fine," Yuna says, glancing up at her. "But… why were you recording me?"

"Really?" Rikku smiles, letting go, and waggles the hand holding the sphere. "You've picked up a whole new skill! Don't you think it'll be fun? I can be gun-slinging Yunie for the day!"

"What?" Yuna says, startled into embarrassed surprise. "Really, Rikku? You're better at it than I am."

"Am not," Rikku retorts, and lifts her eyebrows hopefully. "You sure you won't give me a pose?"

Yuna heaves a sigh. But Rikku isn't one of the many Spirans who keep asking her for her comments on everything, as if by defeating Sin Yuna's an expert on absolutely everything; Rikku's not someone she has to be High Summoner Yuna for. "Oh, all right," she says. "But only if no one sees it!"

"Only us, I promise," Rikku says, grinning.

It's not far down the Highroad before they have to turn off, following their lead into the vast grasslands and ruins. "The signal's fluctuating," Buddy says apologetically over the comms. "I think you'll just have to look for it."

"We'll keep our eyes open," Rikku says, but it's not long before she's sighing. The ruins, half-sunken into the plain, still dwarf the nearby stream, and Rikku squints up at the top of one dubiously. "Argh. Walking, more walking, searching, more searching - now all we need is to camp here, and it's like - " She bites her lip, cutting herself off.

"I mean," Yuna says, and she can still smile at it. "It's not the Thunder Plains. Or Mt. Gagazet. Or - "

"Are you enjoying this?" Rikku says, hands on her hips, leaning forward and eyeing her suspiciously. "Really?"

Yuna eyes the ruined building alongside them and walks up a balustrade, arms spread to keep her balance. Her feet find themselves on rough stone and she focuses on the moment, on nothing except for heading upward, not even the ground dropping out from beneath her. Near the top is a platform, collapsed inward, and she lands on it, flourishing a bow when Rikku claps. "It's not that bad, is it?" she says. "I mean… it's here."

It's alive, she doesn't say. It's something we helped save. Rikku hears her anyway.

"I guess." Rikku draws out the last syllable thoughtfully. "But that doesn't mean you have to like all of it! There must be some places you don't. What about Bevelle?"

Yuna can't help pulling a face, and Rikku laughs. "Hey," Yuna says, trying for chiding and missing it by a mile, "is it so bad that I like it here? It's - quiet. Calm."

"It's your vacation, I guess," Rikku says, peering up at her. "Okay, I've had enough of you being taller, I'm coming up."

Rikku's battle agility fails her halfway. Yuna has to drop down and catch her, bracing herself on her knees, her elbows locking as she holds Rikku upright; "Ack," Rikku says, wobbling, hands tight around Yuna's wrists as she tries to recenter herself, "I knew this was a bad idea - "

"One more jump!" Yuna says, encouragingly, and Rikku's nose wrinkles at her before she takes it. Yuna directs her momentum, swinging her up, and Rikku's elbows scrape on stone as she grapples for purchase and pulls herself up.

She poses standing, triumphantly enough it makes Yuna laugh. "Victory!" Rikku cheers, smiling, and drops back down to where Yuna was sitting, patting the stone edge beside her. When Yuna joins her, Rikku leans in, a warm press of her bare skin against Yuna's from their arms to their thighs. "Okay, maybe you're onto something," Rikku says companionably. "It's not bad up here."

"Yeah," Yuna says. "It's just that... I can see more this way. It's like being on the Celsius when we take off from the ground."

"Flying, huh," Rikku says, thoughtfully. She kicks her feet, the gentle breeze catching the ends of her scarf as she fiddles with it, and gives Yuna a sideways glance. "Is that it? Just seeing it like it's new?"

"It is new, isn't it?" Yuna tips her head back, but she can't keep her gaze on the sky forever when Rikku is there, ever present, her sun-bronze skin and her cascading golden hair and the sweet, lovely smile that Yuna likes to think is all hers. "Like me. I feel… new, these days. It's a little strange, but…"

"It looks great on you," Rikku says. "All of it." She looks so sincere Yuna's heart aches. "You know…" She fishes in her pouch, and pulls out the sphere she was recording Yuna on, holding it out. "This is yours. I tried it on, before it was done, and you're so - sure of yourself, Yunie. Don't lose it, okay?"

Yuna reaches out, clasping Rikku's hand in both of her own, and folds her fingers back around the sphere. "What do I need it for?" she says. "It's yours, right? You said you wanted to learn my new tricks."

"Hey," Rikku squawks, elbowing her, but she's smiling, something soft and startlingly vulnerable in her expression. "Yeah, okay, I'll keep it. But that doesn't mean you get out of teaching me - or learning how to steal things properly! I'll make you a good thief one day, I swear."

Rikku shaking her fist at her is what finally sends Yuna giggling, and then they both are, leaning against each other with the ease born of shared history, a Summoner-Guardian bond that's transcended friendship to something more. Of course Yuna trusts Rikku with her life, just as Rikku trusts her; it's more than that, though, and Yuna thinks she's just about ready to acknowledge it.

Rikku tips her head, her golden hair falling over her shoulder. Yuna reaches out to brush it back from her face. Rikku smiles at her, slyly peeking through her eyelashes, and Yuna closes the gap, bringing their mouths together. The kiss is chaste at first, Rikku's breath warm on her lips, her mouth pliant under Yuna's own, and then Rikku's lips part beneath hers and Yuna's fingers tighten in Rikku's hair as she pulls her close.

Rikku flushes pink from her chest, gasps delightedly when Yuna presses a kiss to her ear and the corner of her mouth, and Yuna loves her and her slow, pleased smile. She kisses Yuna's laugh until they're both breathless, and they both can't stop smiling.

Dozens of spheres, two concerts, and an ancient weapon later, Rikku says, "Are you happy, Yunie?" They're both on the Celsius's deck and this time Rikku takes ruthless advantage, huddling into Yuna's side for warmth, cold fingers seeking out Yuna's every vulnerability. Yuna laughs and catches her hand to entwine their fingers, swinging their arms between them and pulling her in close.

"You know what?" Yuna says. "I think I am."


End file.
